116 ESQUIMAU TRAITS. . 



some rival in the hunt, or an old decrepit man or 

 woman who is a bm^den ; or a person who is sup- 

 posed to be bewitched, or a lazy fellow who has no 

 dogs, and Hves off his more industrious neiglibors. 

 They even destroy their own offspring when there 

 happen to be too many of them brought into the 

 world, or one should chance to be born with some de- 

 formity which will make it incapable of self-support ; 

 but they never meet in open combat ; at least, such 

 are the habits of the tribes who have not yet been 

 reached in some degree by the influences of Christian 

 civilization, or who have not had ingrafted upon them 

 some of the aggressive customs of the old Norsemen, 

 who, from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, lived 

 and fought in Southern Greenland. 



With such traits of character they are naturally dis- 

 inclined to be amiable toward any one who is particu- 

 larly fortunate, and it is not surprising, therefore, that 

 Hans should be envious of Peter. Even had I o;iven 

 the latter no more clothing than was sufficient to 

 cover his nakedness, it would have been all the same. 

 Had I crowded upon Hans the best of every thing in 

 the vessel, without respect to quantity or usefulness, 

 it would not be more than he covets. But the fellow 

 is especially jealous of my personal kind attentions to 

 Peter, for he sees in that the guaranty of still fiu'ther 

 gifts. 



Hans, by the way, keeps up an establishment of 

 Iris own ; and, having a piece of feminhie humanity, 

 he can claim the dignity of systematic liousekeep;5^;r. 

 Within the house on the upper deck he has pitched 

 his Esquimau tent, and, with his wife and baby, half 

 buried in reindeer-skins, he lives the life of a true 

 native. His v/ife bears the name of Merkut, but is 



